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The Depiction of the Protracted Endings and The Japanese Emperor System in Hideki Noda's <i>Toumeiningen no Yuge</i>

2019; Volume: 18; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.7141/ctr.18.53

2186-5094

Rei Inayama,

Japanese History and Culture

This paper analyzes Hideki Noda's Toumeiningen no Yuge (The Steam of the Invisible Man, 1991).Other scholars have identified this work as expressing Noda's criticism of the then contemporary Japanese society.However, few studies have comprehensively analyzed Noda's views of early-1990s Japanese society.Therefore, this paper aims to clarify such views by analyzing his work.My analysis focuses on the two points.The first concerns Noda's depiction of the Japanese emperor system.In Toumeiningen no Yuge, the character Susanoo, who opposes the Emperor, is depicted as an invisible man.In the Japanese foundation myth, Nippon-shoki, Susanoo, the trickster god, disturbs the order of the emperor system.However, according to Masao Yamaguchi, a cultural anthropologist, whose thought Noda likely references, Susanoo is not an insurrectionist but integral to the system.Yamaguchi argues that the emperor system consists of a "Center" and a "Margin"; Susanoo plays a role in the "Margin."Following Yamaguchi, I discuss Noda's view of the Japanese emperor system through his depiction of Susanoo.The second point concerns the protracted endings.Toumeiningen no Yuge largely depicts people who cannot complete an intended action.For example, it includes several parodies of the suicides in Romeo and Juliet, which are never accomplished because of some disturbance and interruption.Also, it can be said that Susanoo is suspended in limbo.He does not completely disappear, but his existence is not obvious.Furthermore, Noda's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1992) also features the protracted endings.This paper considers Noda's reasons for emphasizing this type of ending in his works in the early 1990s.To clarify Noda's views on Japanese society, I also explore social issues current around 1990.At that time, Emperor Showa's death had the biggest impact on the emperor system.According to Noda's diary, Emperor Showa's death made the playwright realize that the emperor system had lost its significance after WW2.I argue that, through Susanoo's invisibility, Noda describes the emperor system in such a situation.Also, the protracted endings can be associated with an eschatological tendency in the early 1990s.Around this time, many anime and manga dealing with eschatological themes were published, and these works often included the sense of the protracted endings.For example, some of them are set in the post-apocalyptic world.Noda